Hunting Tips and Tricks thread

With the upcoming season bearing down on us and our minds are focusing on getting ready, thought it would be good to start a Tips and Tricks thread that we can share some ideas on little things we have discovered along the way that make chasing those crazy birds easier.

I will start with one. Most of us by now have the Waterfowl guide memorized and beside a quick refresher on limits (yep, mallards are 4/1 again this year) don't need to refer to it and have it buried in our blind bags. The only exception is the time table, not something you memorize and kind of important I have tried keeping an extra guide laying around to refer to and that usually gets moved by someone and I have to search for it, have tried cutting out the time table and putting it with my license or wallet but not easy pulling out your wallet in waders and don't like pulling out my license and then misplacing it. So last year I had the idea, the DNR publishes the guide electronically, why not take the time table and store it on my cell phone, that worked well but still had to pull it up each day, so then thought, I can just save this picture as my home screen picture. Since I always have my phone with me, it is as easy as opening it and boom, the time table is there staring right back at me for easy reference.

Also, on a lot of mornings with the blocks all set up and just waiting the 15-20 min. for shooting time, I will set my phone alarm, with a duck quack sound bit that I downloaded and then just sit back and sip on a coffee enjoying the morning, not checking my watch every 2 min. Everyone in the blind enjoys the calm before the storm and when the alarm goes off, we load up and are ready to go.

My tip is something everyone has done at some point and you probably don't even think of it until you make the mistake but once you do it never happens again-Tuck your coat inside your waders when walking through the marsh and water.

1) Scout
2) Scout
3) Load everything the night before
4) If you face is flaring birds, use dirt or mud
5) Paint robo to look like a Black Duck and paint the dark wing side black.
Higher contrast against light colored back drop
6) Cut the bottoms off of irreparable decoys to use on ice
7) Find a discarded yellow guide wire cover, cut to corn size lengths. Drill a hole in one end, put on a line, use in managed areas.
And my favorite, to be used in cloudy or low light conditions:
For sneaking in on field Geese, get some shoplifter security one way plexiglass. You can see right through it yet it reflects, rendering you invisible.

Believe it or not the dark Brown from the Krylon camo series.
Paint and quickly wipe, lightly, the paint off the tops of the molded feathers.
Doing this emulates exactly the color distribution on Blacks.
Don't paint the head and neck. I used a Sharpie to exaggerate the black on the head.

Believe it or not the dark Brown from the Krylon camo series.
Paint and quickly wipe, lightly, the paint off the tops of the molded feathers.
Doing this emulates exactly the color distribution on Blacks.
Don't paint the head and neck. I used a Sharpie to exaggerate the black on the head.

Click to expand...

Ok! I will give that a try on my hen- I just got a new body for my drake! Thanks again!!!

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